Who You Are
by TDM9218
Summary: Just a one-shot about two couples Gail/Chris and Traci/Jerry realizing what they have. Inspired by a song like all my others. This one is "Who are you when I'm not looking" sung by Blake Shelton. Rated T for definite suggestion, but nothing graphic.


**Once again, I don't own the show or the characters. It's really cruel to have to keep saying that by the way. **

* * *

It was a late evening. There hadn't been much going on in the city for the past twelve hours and the cops of 15th needed a good night out. But it wasn't all going to be smiles and friendly chatter at The Black Penny tonight. Jerry knew he was in the dog house the minute he asked Traci to babysit the kid they brought in from the B&E house. She had agreed but her eyes had darkened and narrowed just a tad. It was a shame, because he had been really looking forward to hanging out with her tonight. They'd dated and split up, but they were giving it a second chance. He was hoping that she'd let him come over and spend some time with her and her son soon.

Chris, however, was incredibly excited. He was planning on going to the Penny that night. He was finally comfortable enough to go out after being back at work for a week. He had told Gail to go out and have some fun with her friends; he was sure she was tired of hanging out with the rookies. He wanted to get to see his friends off shift and give her some time on her own, since she had been spending every waking moment she could taking care of him.

By the time both men arrived the rookie women were already there. Jerry headed for the bar and Chris headed for the table Dov was saving.

Andy and Traci stood in one corner of the bar drinks in their hands having a very animated conversation. Jerry was sure that he needed to steer clear for a bit. He just hoped that Sam would realize that too, because then he would at least have some company at the bar. He sat down and ordered his drink. By the time he got it and turned around Andy and Traci were playing darts. _Damn she is really good at that. Maybe a little too good. It's kind of scary to know that she is that accurate when throwing pointed objects when you are the person she is mad at. I wonder what she would do if we weren't in a bar with a convenient dart board?, _he thought.

Just then Sam walked in. "Hey, Jer what's up, man?" "Traci's mad at me and playing darts with your girlfriend." Jerry smiled as he raised his glass in the women's general direction. Sam glanced over to appraise the situation, nodded and sat down.

"So why is Traci mad?" Sam queried, knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere past Jerry's laser focus unless he talked about her. "Aww… I made her babysit." Jerry just shrugged. Sam nodded. He knew the only solution to this was Jerry apologizing, but he also knew that it was too soon to suggest that. So he settled for saying, "She sure is beautiful when she's pissed at you." "She always is," Jerry said his voice full of admiration as he slowly dragged his eyes off of Traci and refocused on Sam.

Meanwhile, Chris was having a difficult time focusing on any of Dov's stories about being back on the street. Chris didn't have any to share tonight, since he had been on desk duty the past week, so Dov was monopolizing the conversation, which he would have done anyway. Usually Dov's street stories entertained him, since he was always so bored being chained to a desk all day, but tonight Gail was all the entertainment he needed. She was absolutely breathtaking sitting across the bar, sipping on wine, and laughing with her brother and all of his friends. It almost made Chris jealous, except he was enjoying the opportunity to drink her in too much.

Gail walked to the back of the bar and into the ladies room. She was very aware of Chris' eyes following her the whole way. _Who am I kidding? His eyes haven't left me all night_, she thought. She could feel something changing in their relationship. They were definitely past the awkward beginning stages of a relationship thanks to Chris' injury, but she hadn't let him completely in yet. He had seen her veneer crack but nothing more. She knew she needed a push to let her guard down. A change of locale would do it. She unconsciously bit her already short nails as she stood staring at herself in the bathroom mirror. Then she realized what she was doing, washed her hands, and reapplied her lip gloss. She was nervous but she was just going to go for it.

She walked out of the ladies room and right up to Chris and Dov's table. She placed her hand on Chris' shoulder and he turned to look up at her beaming. She smiled down at him drawing confidence from her perfectly painted and manicured red toes. "Want to come to my place tonight?" Chris' eyes went wide. She had never offered that before. "S-s-sure," he stammered.

Chris followed a nervous but more confident Gail to the door, after bidding Dov an almost forgotten goodbye.

* * *

Traci noticed an impatient Sam sitting at the bar bored to death with whatever Jerry was ranting on and on about. "Andy, you need to go save that man and take him to bed," she stated matter-of-factly, as she finished off her martini. Andy smiled at Sam. "Trace, are you sure? Cause I can stay as long as you need me to." "Andy, it's fine. I need to go call my mom anyway. She has Leo," Traci justified. Really she just needed her mother's comfort and advice. _There are some things you just don't outgrow_, she thought with a smile. _I hope Leo feels the same way when he is my age._

Andy walked to the bar and wrapped her arm around Sam's bicep. Jerry was too distracted to notice his friend getting up to leave. His eyes never left Traci walking out the door.

Traci walked out to her car and picked up her phone. "Mom?" she asked hesitantly as she heard the telltale noise of the line being picked up. "Yes, hunny," her mother sighed, clearly tired. "I'm on my way over. Thanks so much for watching Leo. I just needed some time out with friends. It was a really rough day at work." "What happened?" her mom asked, sensing the frustration in her voice.

Traci launched into describing the unfair and demeaning role of babysitter that Jerry had saddled her with that day. Her mom nodded and acquiesced to Traci's rant. She knew better than to take Jerry's side on this right now. But she also knew that the man her daughter talked about with that glow in her eye hadn't meant the assignment the way it had been taken. She just hoped that he knew enough to try to see things from her point of view and apologize for the way that it was taken. _It takes a big person to do that_, she thought._ But that is the kind of person that my daughter deserves._

"Trace, why don't you just head home?" Her mother's question startled her. She knew she had been ranting, but she was perfectly capable of taking care of her son and it was a responsibility she didn't want to dump on her own mother just because she had had a bad day. Her mother smiled. She could hear the defensiveness in her daughter's silence. "Leo is asleep already. And even the best mothers need some time to themselves. You taught me that," she said in the most understanding and convincing voice she could muster at midnight. Traci realized her mother was just trying to help her out and that she hadn't had a night alone in about a month. "I could use the time alone, but only if you are really, really sure about this, Mom. You know what a handful Leo can be in the morning." "I know, but he's my grandson and I can handle him." "Thanks, mom." Traci smiled as she hung up the phone and drove by her mother's house on the way to her place.

* * *

Chris followed an almost sheepish Gail up to her apartment. "Now I haven't been here for the past couple of weeks, so you don't get to judge my neatness, okay?" she said for what had to have been the hundredth time. He nodded, smiled, and bent to give her a peck of a kiss as reassurance.

They slipped into her townhouse. It was pretty and simple, in many ways exactly what Chris would have expected. He tried not to look around too much, so as to not make her overly self-conscious. "Make yourself comfortable. I'm going to go get a drink. You want something?" "Water," Chris answered on instinct. He didn't want to have too much alcohol and do something stupid.

Gail returned with his water and a glass of white wine, just like she had been drinking at the Penny. That and the silence that followed prompted Chris to ask what she had been talking about at the Penny. She launched into a story about one of her brother's big cases almost getting blown in the most off beat way. Five minutes later she was in a fit of laughter. Chris couldn't help but smile. _Seeing her like this is so rare. _"Looks like that wine is definitely starting to relax you," he said with a grin his voice slightly husky.

She smirked. "Oh… no. You want to see how I relax?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye. He was thrown by her denial. "Uh… okay." _I'm up for a little show and tell_, he thought. "Good. You stay here." She sat the wine down next to the bottle on the coffee table. Chris' eyebrows arched in confusion._ I have no idea where this is going, _he thought_._ She slipped down the hallway in eager anticipation.

She returned to find Chris staring down at the water in his glass looking for all the world like a lost puppy. She smiled. _I like him like this. This is relaxing_, she thought. _Him like this lets me open up and just be me. _She cleared her throat. He looked up and met her beautiful blue eyes and instantly relaxed. She smiled and motioned for him to come to her from where she stood.

His brow furrowed in confusion once again, but it was quickly erased as Gail started to unbutton her shirt. It lay in a pile on the floor before he came to his senses. "Bring the wine," she called out as she turned and strode down the hallway shedding clothes to the floor as she went. Chris excitedly rose and had to control himself so he wouldn't' spill the wine all the way down her hallway.

When he finally reached the doorway at the end of the hall that Gail had slipped into, he took a deep breath and pushed open the cracked door. His breath was instantly gone again when his eyes feasted upon Gail sunk to her nose in a huge tub of bubbles. She just grinned. This had always been special time. _I've never let anyone in on this little secret_, she smiled at the thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, across town in her apartment Traci was pouring a glass of scotch on the rocks and settling in to watch one of her all-time favorite chick flicks. Halfway through the movie, it dawned on her that she was starving from missing her dinner to go out. She went to her fridge and realized she had absolutely nothing prepared. _I don't even have anything that takes less than an hour to make_, she sighed at the thought. That's when she noticed the box of chocolates on her countertop. Dex had sent them over after she broke up with him. They were his way of trying to get back together. She had thought about throwing them away, but they weren't like flowers. _Who throws away chocolate, anyway?_ she had thought. Well now she was going to eat it, because even Jerry could understand keeping chocolate. _Not that I care what he thinks anyway_, she thought in an attempt to stay mad at him.

She went to the stereo and turned on her favorite radio station. In between bite size chocolate morsels and sips of scotch she danced all over her living room. It was the first time she had really let loose in months, and something she desperately needed. That's when their song started to play, her and Jerry's song. She froze and listened to the lyrics. It wasn't exactly their official song. They didn't really have one, but she had dubbed it their song because of how much the words reminded her of him. At the end of the song she picked up her phone.

"Traci. Are you okay?" Jerry's familiar voice was tinged with a hint of worry. He had been just about to call her, but it was 2 AM and she was supposed to have Leo tonight. She shouldn't have been awake to call him. _I hope she is okay._

"Oh yeah, yeah." She hadn't realized that his mind would instantly go to something being wrong. "Actually, I'm just calling to say I'm sorry for being so mad at you today."

He froze. He hadn't been expecting that. "Actually, I should be saying I'm sorry, Trace. I didn't think about how what I asked you to do looked and sounded. I hope you know that it wasn't intended in that way at all. I think you are a very strong woman and a very capable cop. So I'm sorry if I've ever made you feel otherwise."

She smiled. He had known exactly where her mind had gone. It was so hard to resist Noelle's interpretation of things today when it happened again, but he had once again chased all doubts from her mind.

"So, I'm kind of standing on your doorstep. You think you could let me in?" Jerry's voice broke her silently happy reverie.

She opened the door beaming and he bent down to steal a kiss before crossing the threshold.

* * *

In the morning, Chris rolled over sliding more than he was used to on Gail's silky sheets. He thought he'd have the opportunity to watch his so-not-a-morning-person girlfriend sleep in his arms, but she was nowhere to be found. He looked up at the open bedroom door. Just then Gail came sliding down the hallway in her socks with a plate of waffles and a bottle of syrup.

She blushed when Chris caught her. "I made breakfast," she muttered sheepishly. "What do you want to drink?" He just grinned. "Milk, please." She is a perfect diamond. _Hard and cold as she can be on the outside, but cut and polished masterfully, with so many brilliant facets you never know what you're going to get_, he thought his heart full of admiration.

* * *

Across town, Jerry was sitting at Traci's bar top counter watching her make pancakes. He was sipping on an orange juice completely satisfied with his life in that one moment. She was apologizing, yet again, for overreacting the night before. Her concern was sweet, but he couldn't resist laughing at her for feeling the need to apologize again after everything that had happened the previous night. "Trace, you are absolutely perfect just the way you are. And I don't mind apologizing for all the little mistakes I'm bound to make for the rest of my life. Besides you had every reason to call me on that one. I wouldn't want it to become a habit. Even if it was just because I think you are the best mother I've ever seen," he said in the most heartfelt tone he could muster after laughing.

She spun around concern in her eyes. "You really mean that, Jer?" He smiled got up and walked around the counter, slipped his arms around her and kissed her. "Yes. I mean that." She smiled up at him and they stood holding each other for a minute, before Jerry inhaled deeply and took a step back. "What is it?" Traci asked suddenly concerned again. "The pancakes are burning," Jerry stated matter-of-factly. "How about I make breakfast from now on?" he said looking over his shoulder at her grinning while he took over. "I could get used to that every morning," she said. Neither missed the other's suggestion.


End file.
